Rummikub® Rules

Dealer gives one card at a time face down, beginning with the player on the left. When two people play, each person gets 10 cards. When three or four people play, each receives seven cards; when five or six play, each receives six cards. The remaining cards are placed face down on the table, forming the stock. Number of cards dealt Theincreases by one each round until each player receives 13 cards in the last round. The cards remaining after the deal are placed face down on the table to form the stock pile, the top card of which is turned face up and placed alongside to start the discard pile. Object of the Game.

Rummikub® is a commercially-available tile rummy game developed by Israeli games inventor Ephraim Hertzano in the early 1930s. Even though this game is played with tiles rather than cards, this is a true Rummy game,featuring many of the elements common to all Rummy games, including the goal of making melds of three or more of a kind.

Rummikub is also known under other names, such as 'Tile Rummy', 'Rummy Tiles', 'Rummy-O', 'RummyCube', 'Rummykub','Rummicub', 'Rummicube', and 'Rummycub'.

Here is an interesting theory about why tiles are used rather than cards:

Over the years, a number of different religious groups have associated playing cards with gambling, and have enforced a strict prohibition against all card games, regardless of whether they were gambling games or not. Rummikub arose as an alternative to this prejudice against playing cards. It is a purely numbered tile game with no images of kings & queens, or other royalty. Rummikub is considered by millions of lay men and women around the world, as socially relaxing and interactive play for all ages. Also clergymen and clergywomen of many denominations enjoy this peaceful and enjoyable game.

Rummikub Rules

Introduction:

All over the world people are discovering the joys of Rummikub® an exciting, fast-moving game which combines theelement of luck with strategic planning to provide hours of fascinating play Rummikub° btings together the most popularfeatures of a number of well-known pastimes including Mah-Jongg®, dominoes, rummy and even an element of chess, into amodern game which holds the attention, stimulates the imagination, challenges the wits and pleases the eye of today’sdemanding game players.

How to Play Rummikub®,
The Sabra Way

RULES

SABRA WAY is played by 2, 3, or 4 people. It is played very much like cards except you play with tiles.There are 106 tiles in the game including 2 jokers.

There are 4 different color tiles, black, red, orange, and blue numbering 1 through 13.

The object of the game is to be the first to eliminate all the tiles from your rack by forming them into sets of runs and groups,and then melding them onto the table.

Your objective, therefore, is to keep as few points in your hand as possible.

SETTING UP THE GAME

Mix the tiles thoroughly face downward on the table. Each player picks a tile to see who goes first. The one who selects thehighest tile is the first to play. The others follow going counterclockwise.

After you determine who plays first, all the players pick 14 tiles.

BEGINNING

In order to place tiles on the table each player must make an initial meld of 50 points in one or more sets. These points mustcome from tiles in the hand only and not from tiles already on the table. Each tile is worth the number of points as valued onthe tile. A joker may be substituted for any tile and its point value is the same as the tile it represents when melding, and worth 30points when held on your rack while another player wins.

RUNS

All runs must consist of at least 3 tiles of the same color -

EXAMPLES:4, 5, 6 red 1, 2, 3, 4 orange

GROUPS

Groups must consist of 3 or 4 tiles of different colors

EXAMPLE:#4 red, #4 blue, #4 black

Not acceptable: #4 orange, #4 orange, #4 red

MELDS

EXAMPLES:

PLAYING THE TABLE

Once you have placed your initial 50 points down, you are free to play on the table and manipulate and rearrange melds.

If you cannot add onto the other runs or groups of yours or opponents, you must pick a tile from the table. Then you mustwait until your next turn to play. You continue to pick tiles until you are able to play - you can never lay down once you havepulled a tile.

EXAMPLE:

are on the table. You can add the #4 blue. You are, therefore, able to take on one of the #4’s to use for another group or run.You must leave at least 3 tiles in order to make another meld.

are on the table. You can add either a #5 red or a #9 red. If you have a joker in your tiand you could make the following addition.

If there are more than 3 tiles in one group or run, you can take the excess to make a new group or run. Each set must contain atleast 3 tiles.

are on the table. You make take the #6 blue if you have a #5 and a #7 blue and make a new run. Or, if you have a #6 red and a #6orange you can make a new group of #6’s. The same would apply to the #9 blue, you would still be leaving 3 tiles if you tookeither the 6 or the 9.

are on the table. You can take one of the 5’s and add it with a #4 and a #6 of the same color and make a run. Or if you had twomore #5’s in your hand you could take a different color #5 and make another group.

are on the table. If you have an 8 blue and 10 blue in your hand you can move the 9 orange over to the group of 9’s and then takethe 9 blue for your run. Therefore, you are still leaving 3 in each set.

are on the table. If you have a #4 black in your hand and a #1 black you can use them to make the following groups.

THE JOKER

A Joker may be substituted for any tile when you make a meld. You can add a tile to a meld containing a Joker, either the fourthtile in a group or to either end of a run. You may not take a tile away from a meld which includes a Joker. You may take a Jokerfrom a run or group in exchange for a tile of the same vaue from your hand. You must use the Joker immediately with 2 moretiles from your hand to make another meld onto the table. You may not hold the Joker to use ata later time. Under tournamentrules, a Joker taken from a group of three tiles must be replaced with both missing tiles.

EXAMPLES:

A meld containing a Joker may not be manipulated. After a Joker has been taken from a meld as shown above, the meldmay be manipulated.

TIME LIMIT

Two minutes per turn - per player.

SCORING

Each loser adds up the value of the tiles left on his rack, counting 30 points for a joker and face value for all other tiles, andscores this as a minus (negative) amount.

The sum of all the losers’ scores is credited to the winner as a plus amount. At the end of the session, each player’s final scoreis totalled for the final results. The total of the plus scores should equal the total of the minus scores if all the arithmetichas been done correctly.

In the rare case that all the tiles are used up before anyone goes Rummikub®, the player with the lowest count remaining on hisrack is considered the winner. Each of the losers adds up his total remaining tile value, subtracts the winner's total andscores the result as a minus amount, and the winner gets a plus score by totalling the losers’ scores.

PENALTIES

A player who plays past the two-minute time limit must draw one tile from the pool.

A player who manipulates the tiles unsuccessfuUy and leaves incomplete melds on the table, must replace the tiles in theiroriginal positions, take back the tiles he has melded, and draw three additional tiles from the pool.

© E. Hertzano, Israel, © 1985 Pressman Toy Corp., N.Y., N.Y.

International Rummy Rules

Other Rummikub Rule Links

Other Rummy Tile Games

John McLeod has rules for several other related games, including the Turkish game Okey,Romanian Tile Rummy, and the Rummikub variationsAmerican Rummikub and International Rummikub.

Rummikub Card and Board Games

Rummikub Software

Rummikub® is a registered trademark of Pressman Toy Corporation. The Rummikub rules were OCR'd from a vintage rule sheet, and are provided as an educational resource forRummy players, researchers, and students of the game. Any grammatical or typographical errors are an artifact of thisprocess, and should not be attributed to the original source.

Additional Information

Continental Rummy (also called Continental, May I?, and Double-deck rummy) is a progressive partnership Rummycard game related to Rumino. It is considered the forerunner of the whole family of rummy games using two packs of cards as one. Its name derives from the fact that it is played throughout the continental Europe (especially in the Czech republic and Slovakia where it is known as Žolíky), the United States, Mexico, Canada, and also in South America.^[1] According to Albert Morehead, it was 'at one time the most popular form of Rummy in women's afternoon games, until in 1950 it lost out to Canasta.'

Object[edit]

The object of Continental Rummy is to be the player with the fewest penalty points after playing all seven hands. Everyone draws one card, the high card deals, and the subsequent deals are passed to the left.

Two 52-card decks are used plus two Jokers per deck. The number of decks used additional to the base of two is determined by dividing the number of players by two and rounding up, if needed. For example:

• 4 players use 2 decks
• 5 players use 3 decks
• 6 players use 3 decks
• 7 players use 4 decks
• 8 players use 4 decks

Each player is dealt 12 cards, the remaining stock pile is set on the table. Jokers and red Aces are wild. After a card is drawn, one must be discarded, and the next player to the left has the option of drawing either the top discard or top stock card then he must discard.

A set consists of three or more cards of the same face value, e.g., three queens, or three aces, or three sevens. A run consists of four or more cards of the same suit, in sequence. If there is an ace in the run, it can serve as either high card or low card, but not both in the same run. No run may contain more than 13 cards.

Rules For International Rummy

Gameplay[edit]

Hands[edit]

Seven different deals, or hands, make up one game. Each hand consists of a combination of sets and runs, and there is a different opening requirement for each of the seven hands. The first hand requires a player to open, or 'go down,' with two sets. A minimum of six cards makes up the first hand's opening requirements, seven cards for the second hand, etc. Each successive hand needs one more card for the opening requirements, until the seventh hand, which requires twelve cards to open. Everyone moves on to the next hand together, regardless of whether they were able to go down during the previous hand.

Once a player has gone down by satisfying the requirements for that particular hand, he may not create any new sets or runs. While playing the first hand of two sets, no player may play three sets. Cards that remain in a player's hand may only be played onto the sets and runs already established on the table.

The sequence of seven hands is as follows:

For those hands that require multiple runs, if a player goes down using the same suit for more than one straight, the straights can be played with contiguous card values. However, the player must separate these cards into two runs of four (or more) and can be played on separately, i.e. Player 1 goes down with 5–8 and 9-Q of spades, Player 2 (who is down) can play a 9 of spades on the first straight and an 8 on the second and so on. Multiple trios of the same value (number or face) can be played in this manner as well.

The deal[edit]

All players pick a card at random and return it to the deck, high card dealing first. Each hand starts a new deal, with the turn to deal passing from player to player, to the left. Cards are dealt one at a time, face down beginning at the dealer's left. The dealer deals 12 cards face down to each player, places the remainder of the pack face down in the middle, and places the top card from the stock pile face up next to it. Play starts with the player to the dealer's left and proceeds clockwise. If the first face-up card is a joker, it is played as any other card would be, i.e., the player to the dealer's left would have first choice to pick it up in turn.

The play[edit]

Beginning with the player to the left of the dealer, a person's turn begins by selecting either the top card from the stock pile, or the top card from the discard pile. If the player does not wish to select from the discard pile, any player in order of rotation to the left of the player may claim that card, but must also draw the top card from the stock pile as a penalty for picking out of turn, without discarding. Conventionally this desire is announced by saying 'may I?', thus the alternative name of this game. If several players wish the top card, the priority goes to the desiring player closest in rotation to the current player. In such a case:

• The order of play is not changed,
• The player picking out of turn may not play any cards on the table until his or her next regular turn,
• Any remaining cards in the discard pile are ineligible for selection (dead), and
• The player whose turn was interrupted resumes play by selecting the top card from the stock pile.

As a point of strategy, it is occasionally advantageous to 'may I' for a card not directly useful, in the hopes the penalty card will be useful.

If the player has not yet opened, and has the necessary cards to meet the opening requirements for that hand, he may then lay down the sets and runs appropriate for that hand. Having opened, the player is then free to play (in that same turn and in subsequent turns) additional cards onto existing sets or runs that have already been played on the table. A player may not put any cards into play until he has opened ('gone down').

Wild cards may be used to fill in missing cards in a set or a run, but the wilds can never outnumber the standard cards. Trios of wild cards can be played, however, and only wild cards can be played onto these trios. If a player doesn't verbally declare the value of a joker being played as part of a run, its value is implied by the position in which it is originally placed. If the player changes his mind as to which cards to play where, only the cards played in the current turn may be picked up for re-use. Wild cards cannot be rearranged on a straight to play another card, i.e. Player 1 has a straight of 4–8 of hearts, with a wild standing in for the 5. Player 2 (who is down) cannot play his 5 of hearts and move the wild card somewhere else in the straight.

During a player's regular turn, and only if they have already opened, a wild card already laid on the table as part of any run may be replaced by the card which it represents, taken from the player's hand. The wild card must then be played on the table to represent any card in any set or run. Wild cards that are part of a set may not be replaced.

The end of a turn occurs when a player discards one card onto the discard pile. Play then continues with the next player to the left.

Scoring[edit]

Since Continental Rummy is a game winnable based on the fewest points, you get 5 points for cards from 2–9. 10 and face cards count as 10 points. Aces are 20 points and Jokers are 50.

Rule Variations[edit]

It is common for regional or house rules to develop. Examples include that 'may I?'s are not allowed in the last three rounds, or using 2's as additional wild cards.

Rules of play[edit]

Stock pile depletion[edit]

It is possible when many cards have been taken out of turn in a hand, resulting in many penalty cards, that the stock pile may dwindle down to nothing before any player has gone out. Should this happen, the stock pile is turned over once, without shuffling, and play continues in order. If the remaining cards in the stock pile are depleted a second time without any player going out, the hand ends and all points remaining in all players' hands are tallied as they would be had someone gone out.

Incomplete hands and games[edit]

If all players agree, a game may be suspended between hands and later resumed, but only if all players are available when play resumes, and only if the game resumes in the same calendar year as it started. Players must be seated in the same relative positions to each other when the game resumes.

Any player not finishing a full game (one or more hands not played to completion) will post a game total equal to the sum of the two highest complete game totals posted by other players in that game. If two other complete game totals are not available in that game, all statistics for that game are discarded. Similarly, any player not providing a score for a particular hand that he or she played will post a score equal to the sum of the two highest scores posted by other players for that hand. If two other scores are not available in that hand, the hand is re-played.

Play out of turn[edit]

If a player going out of turn is not stopped before discarding, it stands as a play in turn and intervening players lose their turns. If the player out of turn has chosen to take the top card of the stock pile, it is too late for rectification after the player has added that card to his or her hand.

If it is not too late, as defined, to correct the error, the offender restores the card drawn, takes back any cards that he or she may have played, and play then reverts to the correct person, the rule Illegal Draw may apply.

Illegal Draw[edit]

If, by playing out of turn or by drawing more than one card from the top of the stock pile, a player sees a card to which he is not entitled, that card is placed face up on top of the stock pile. The next player in turn may either take the card or may have it placed face down in the center of the stock pile, and proceed to play as if no irregularity had occurred. If more than one card is so exposed at the top of the stock pile, the option of each player in turn is only to take the top such card remaining there, or the top face-down card of the stock pile, or the previous player's discard. That is, players have three options to draw from instead of the normal two, as long as exposed cards remain at the top of the stock pile.

A player's illegal draw may not be corrected after discarding, but the section on Incorrect Hand may apply.

Premature discard[edit]

Any player who discards without drawing may then draw from the stock pile to restore their hand to the proper number of cards, but may not lay down any cards after discarding. If the next player in turn has already drawn, the section on Incorrect Hand applies. A player who discards more than one card may retract either one, unless the next player has drawn it or unless the next player has already ended their turn.

Incorrect hand[edit]

• A player with too many cards discards without drawing.
• A player with too few cards draws without discarding; one card in each turn until the player's hand is restored to the correct number. This also applies to a player who draws too many cards and adds them to his hand before correction is required.
• A player may not lay down any cards in a turn when the hand is still incorrect.
• If, after a player goes out, another player has too many cards, he simply counts the value of all cards in the hand.
• If a player has too few cards, he is charged 10 points for each missing card.
• If any player goes out and is found to have too few cards, they take back all cards that were laid down in that turn, and play continues.

Re-deal[edit]

There must be a re-deal, by the same dealer, if more than one card is exposed in dealing or if more than one card is found face up in the pack. A player who is dealt an incorrect number of cards may demand a re-deal before drawing in their first turn, but not after that. There must be a re-deal at any time it is discovered that the pack is incorrect, but the results of previous deals are not affected.

Cards laid down illegally[edit]

Any cards which are superfluous in an otherwise correct set or run must be returned to the original player's hand as soon as they are discovered. Any cards that may have been added to the incorrect set or run remain on the table. Play then proceeds as if no irregularity had occurred.

Scoring errors[edit]

An error in counting a hand may not be corrected after that hand has been mixed with other cards. However, if an error in scoring is discovered when there had previously been no dispute, an agreed upon correction may be made at any time.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

1. ^Scarne, John Scarne on Card Games: How to Play and Win at Poker, Pinochle, Blackjack, Gin and Other Popular Card Games pg. 99 Dover Publications (2004) ISBN0-486-43603-9

External links[edit]

• Rules of Card Games – May I? at Pagat.com